When I first saw Inferno Climber Reborn, I was intrigued, since it looked like a chibi Dark Souls, and in a way it is. ICR is an action RPG with a dark story and with many elements that come together to bring a game that offers some interesting ideas and concepts.
Inferno Climber Reborn’s story starts as follows: you choose from one of eight different characters. After choosing the one you like, you are brought to a fight. However, as you move through the area, you noticed your comrades lying on the floor and saying in their last breaths that you are the only one who can win, so heroically you face a powerful enemy. You brace yourself and…he one-shots you. So your adventure ends…or so it seemed as you fall unto the pits of darkness a voice asks you if you want power. So, without spoiling much, you are in a quest to save hell from destruction and doing so helps regain lost balance.
One thing that is interesting on ICR is that the game gives a look of a mash-up of Zelda and Dark Souls but with its own mechanics that make it different than the games it took inspiration from. ICR is more a game about carefully planning your next step than trying to overwhelm enemies by sheer force and determination because in some areas of the game enemies can quickly defeat you. Like the Souls games, once you are dead, everything is over…or is it? You see when your character dies, a new one must be chosen and all the equipment you had is left on the corpse. However, you can’t choose the same class again. If you die a knight, you need to choose anything but the knight, so this system is nice in a way because it allows you to try different classes in your playthrough. But what happens if you liked one class and want it back? Well, there is a way if you want to gain the opportunity of resurrecting the previous class you had. You must venture forth and find the place your character died and claim the character’s soul.
However, some things could’ve benefit if they had a simple or user-friendly approach–for example: switching from equipment and weapons. This can be done in real-time. However, to chance equipment you have to hold down the L or ZL (depending on what you need) and use the D-Pad while holding down to select your weapon or item. This on paper sounds good, but when you are surrounded by enemies and need to swap equipment fast, then this mechanic instead of making things easier makes them harder.
Graphically, I think the game looks good. The music is eerie and dark and goes well with the overall theme of the game. Besides the control problems, I encountered a bug in which the game defaults to Japanese when starting. Its not something that can’t be fixed, so I hope an update fixes this.
Bottom Line: Inferno Climber Reborn feels like a Diamond that needs more polishing to make it really shine. It has some good mechanics that for those patient enough will bring tons of fun. If you are a souls fan and don’t mind the issues explained above, this is a game for you if not its better to stay clear.
A Review Code was provided for this review.